Middle East

Jan. 13, 2014 | 01:30 PM (Last updated: January 13, 2014 | 07:02 PM)

Al-Qaeda-linked group ousts rivals from Syria town

Residents inspect the damage caused by suicide bombers belonging to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), whom activists said were targeting the Tawhid Brigade and Al-Fateh brigade headquarters that are under the Free Syrian Army, in Aleppo January 12, 2014. REUTERS/Ahmad Othman

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Fighters from an Al-Qaeda-linked group expelled rival rebels from a northern Syrian town after heavy clashes Monday, then quickly moved to eliminate any pockets of resistance by setting up checkpoints on major roads and conducting house-to-house raids in search of opponents, activists said.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's seizure of the town of al-Bab is part of a brutal battle between the Al-Qaeda-affiliated group and rebels from Islamist and more moderate factions that has raged across opposition-held territory in northern Syria for the past 11 days. The rebel-on-rebel clashes are the most serious since the Syrian civil war began, and have further muddied an already complicated conflict less than two weeks ahead of a planned international peace conference for Syria in Switzerland.

The pace and scale of the rebel war-within-a-war has eclipsed even that of the opposition's fight against President Bashar Assad, with at least 700 people killed since the infighting began Jan. 3, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.